Amy Allen

Amy Allen fractures critical theory from within by dispensing with its progressive reading of history while retaining its notion of progress as a political imperative. In reimagining a decolonized critical theory after the end of progress, she rescues it from oblivion and gives it a future for achieving emancipatory social goals.

Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory

The End of Progress

In The Power of Feminist Theory, Amy Allen diagnoses the inadequacies of previous feminist conceptions of power and draws on the work of a diverse group of theorists of power, including Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Hannah Arendt, in order to construct a new feminist conception of power. Allen illuminates the interrelatedness of domination, resistance, and solidarity, enabling the reader to understand and theorize on these three modalities of power.

Domination, Resistance, Solidarity

The Power of Feminist Theory

Some theorists understand the self as constituted by power relations, while others insist upon the self's autonomous capacities for critical reflection and deliberate self-transformation. All too often, these understandings of the self are assumed to be incompatible. Amy Allen, however, argues that the capacity for autonomy is rooted in the very power relations that constitute the self. Her theoretical framework illuminates both aspects of what she calls, following Foucault, the "politics of our selves." It analyzes power in all its depth and complexity, including the complicated phenomenon of subjection, without giving up on the ideal of autonomy. Drawing on original and critical readings of a diverse group of theorists, Allen shows how the self can be both constituted by power and capable of an autonomous self-constitution.

Power, Autonomy, and Gender in Contemporary Critical Theory

The Politics of Our Selves

Brian O'Connor

Critical social theory has long been marked by a deep, creative, and productive relationship with psychoanalysis. Whereas Freud and Fromm were important cornerstones for the early Frankfurt School, recent thinkers have drawn on the object-relations school of psychoanalysis. Transitional Subjects is the first book-length collection devoted to the engagement of critical theory with the work of Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott, and other members of this school. Featuring contributions from some of the leading figures working in both of these fields, including Axel Honneth, Joel Whitebook, Noëlle McAfee, Sara Beardsworth, and C. Fred Alford, it provides a synoptic overview of current research at the intersection of these two theoretical traditions while also opening up space for further innovations. Transitional Subjects offers a range of perspectives on the critical potential of object-relations psychoanalysis, including feminist and Marxist views, to offer valuable insight into such fraught social issues as aggression, narcissism, “progress,” and torture. The productive dialogue that emerges augments our understanding of the self as intersubjectively and socially constituted and of contemporary “social pathologies.” Transitional Subjects shows how critical theory and object-relations psychoanalysis, considered together, have not only enriched critical theory but also invigorated psychoanalysis.

Critical Theory and Object Relations

Transitional Subjects

Hannah Arendt was one of the most original and influential social and political theorists of the 20th century. This volume brings together important English-language essays on Arendt's contributions to social and political philosophy.

Hannah Arendt

Zur Dekolonisierung der normativen Grundlagen der kritischen Theorie

Das Ende des Fortschritts

Lit from Within: The Sacred Path to Healthy Self-Esteem and Permanent Weight Loss is a powerful and innovative approach to losing weight and loving yourself by healing at the root of the root of the real issues of obesity and self-hatred. It is about true beauty, integrity, and healthy self-esteem which is earned by making choices that are congruent with what you want. You know what to do to lose weight and love yourself; you just don't understand why you won't do it! Quit asking "why" and starting asking the real question: "How do I heal?" You will gain a deeper understanding of yourself, the beliefs driving your decisions, clarity on what you really want, and ways to create health and beauty with intentionality. This innovative approach offers a unique blend of truthful self-inquiry, spiritual insights and practices, as well as practical tools to implement these concepts into action. As we all know too well: true transformation comes from within, not from a short-term diet or New Year's resolution. This level of self-responsibility and self-care is truly a sacred endeavor. You have wanted to be thin, beautiful, and confident your whole life. You have wanted to feel good in your own skin and love your unique being in the world. Create that now by transforming yourself within so that what you experience on the outside is a true reflection of your inner beauty. Nutrition and exercise are not even worth discussing until you have done the work in Lit from Within.

The Sacred Path to Healthy Self-Esteem and Permanent Weight Loss

Lit from Within

Draws on the work of a diverse group of theorists in order to illustrate and construct a new feminist conception of power.

Does critical theory still need psychoanalysis? In Critique on the Couch, Amy Allen offers a cogent and convincing defense of its ongoing relevance. Countering the overly rationalist and progressivist interpretations of psychoanalysis put forward by contemporary critical theorists such as Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth, Allen argues that the work of Melanie Klein offers an underutilized resource. She draws on Freud, Klein, and Lacan to develop a more realistic strand of psychoanalytic thinking that centers on notions of loss, negativity, ambivalence, and mourning. Far from leading to despair, such an understanding of human subjectivity functions as a foundation of creativity, productive self-transformation, and progressive social change. At a time when critical theorists are increasingly returning to psychoanalytic thought to diagnose the dysfunctions of our politics, this book opens up new ways of understanding the political implications of psychoanalysis while preserving the progressive, emancipatory aims of critique.

Why Critical Theory Needs Psychoanalysis

Critique on the Couch

Power is clearly a crucial concept for feminist theory. Insofar as feminists are interested in analyzing power, it is because they have an interest in understanding, critiquing, and ultimately challenging the multiple array of unjust power relations affecting women in contemporary Western societies, including sexism, racism, heterosexism, and class oppression.In The Power of Feminist Theory, Amy Allen diagnoses the inadequacies of previous feminist conceptions of power, and draws on the work of a diverse group of theorists of power, including Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Hannah Arendt, in order to construct a new feminist conception of power. The conception of power developed in this book enables readers to theorize domination, resistance, and solidarity, and, perhaps more importantly, to do so in a way that illuminates the interrelatedness of these three modalities of power.

Mari Ruti

Critical Theory Between Klein and Lacan explores convergences and divergences in the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein and Jacques Lacan, with a special focus on the implications of their work for critical theory, broadly construed. The book is co-authored in the form of a dialogue between Amy Allen, a prominent representative of Frankfurt School critical theory with expertise on Klein, and Mari Ruti, a leading Lacanian critical theorist. Klein and Lacan are among the two most important and influential psychoanalytic theorists after Freud. Their work has profound implications for how we understand subjectivity, intersubjectivity, autonomy, agency, desire, affect, trauma, history, and the potential for individual and social change. Allen and Ruti offer distinctive interpretations of Klein and Lacan that not only bring out their complexities but also highlight productive points of convergence where most psychoanalytic and critical theorists see irreconcilable differences. The book is organized around key themes that cut across and through the work of Klein and Lacan, culminating in an assessment of the implications of their theories for thinking about politics.

A Dialogue

Critical Theory Between Klein and Lacan

Hannah Arendt was one of the most original and influential social and political theorists of the 20th century. This volume brings together the most important English-language essays of the past 30 years on Arendt's unique and lasting contributions to social and political philosophy.

While post- and decolonial theorists have thoroughly debunked the idea of historical progress as a Eurocentric, imperialist, and neocolonialist fallacy, many of the most prominent contemporary thinkers associated with the Frankfurt School—Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, and Rainer Forst—have defended ideas of progress, development, and modernity and have even made such ideas central to their normative claims. Can the Frankfurt School's goal of radical social change survive this critique? And what would a decolonized critical theory look like? Amy Allen fractures critical theory from within by dispensing with its progressive reading of history while retaining its notion of progress as a political imperative, so eloquently defended by Adorno. Critical theory, according to Allen, is the best resource we have for achieving emancipatory social goals. In reimagining a decolonized critical theory after the end of progress, she rescues it from oblivion and gives it a future.

Amy Allen

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